Interesting Facts About the 1940 Census-from Gold Diggers,Vol.32 Issue 4 The top five foreign countries listed as a birthplace were Italy, Germany; Russia. Polaa and EnglanJ. New York was the most commonly listed birth state. The average household size enumerated in the 1940 census was 3.7 people. Two women tied for the oldest person in the census: both Mary Dilworth of Oxford Mississippi,and Candido Vega Y Tomes of Guayama, Puerto Rico,listed their ages as 119. Mary and John were the most common given names appearing in the 1940 ensus. The top five surnames in the 1940 census were Smith,Johnson,Brown,Williams,and Jones. More than 850,000 people reported living in hotels or similar housing.

Thanks George! I appreciate that a major effort was made to index the 1940 census. But fair warning---there are many mistakes. I even had trouble finding myself and knew exactly where we were living in 1940. The transcribers either could not handle my father's name or were too hurried to spell it correctly. The handwriting on the original looks correct but then I know what it "should" be. So if anyone is having fits searching the 1940 census try lots of spellings. Nancy